Chapter 136
Chapter 136
The surgical waiting room was quiet again now, save for the occasional shuffle of a nurse’s sneakers passing by the open door. Keira was curled in a chair cradling a cup of coffee. Luca figured it would be stone cold by now. Blair sat cross–legged by the window, thumbing through a magazine on her lap, but the way she wasn’t spending any time on each page, he doubted she was even reading it.
Roman sat beside her, his hand rubbing up and down her back as he checked his watch again.
Luca’s phone buzzed in his lap.
Nick De Santis’s name showed on the screen. Luca stared at it for a beat, thumb hesitating above the screen..
Of all the moments for his father to call!
For one brief second, he thought about letting it ring out, telling himself he would call back later. After Sutton woke up. After he saw the baby. After he knew they would both be okay.
But it wasn’t just Sutton lying unconscious in recovery. He still hadn’t been allowed to see her.
It was also Nick’s grandson in that NICU.
And if–God willing… Sutton didn’t hate him when this was all over, maybe Nick’s daughter–in–law too.
He swiped to answer.
“Ciao, Papa.”
“Luca,” Nick’s voice sounded clearer than expected.
Luca closed his eyes briefly and leaned forward in the chair.
He was bracing himself to tell his father what had happened, but before he could speak, his father went on.
“We are here. At JFK. Just landed.”
Luca’s eyes snapped open. “Wait. What?”
Antonio’s voice piped in faintly in the background. “We’re still waiting on Bella’s suitcase… they lost it.”
“We?” Luca said, chest already tightening.
Nick grunted. “Yes, we… your brother, Bella, and me. We came to meet Sutton. Your fiancée. We wanted to surprise you.”
Luca didn’t speak for a full second. Sutton wasn’t his fiancée yet.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose, inhaled through gritted teeth.
“Papa, why the hell would you travel all the way here without telling me? You had a heart attack a few months ago.”
Nick gave an exhausted sigh, the kind built exclusively by disappointment carried over multiple generations. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not supposed to be flying yet.”
“What do you want from me, Luca? We are De Santis men. We don’t sit still. The doctor cleared me for travel. I figured it was time to meet this model you refused to give up.”
Luca winced.
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Chapter 136
He could practically see his father’s look: the dismissiveness, the tight line of his mouth that always said, ‘I know what’s best, and it’s hot what yolave
chosen.’
“For what it’s worth,” Nick added, “I don’t trust a woman who runs. But she is carrying my grandson and my first great heir”
Luca’s stomach rolled.
“Papa,” he whispered, voice rougher now.
“What?”
“She’s in the hospital.”
Silence.
He closed his eyes. “There was an accident. Outside my building. A cyclist hit her. She fell, and they rushed her here. She had to have emergency surgery. The baby was in distress. It-”
“What are you saying?” Nick’s voice dropped, quieter but more rigid. “Is she… Are they-?”
“They’re alive,” Luca said fast. “But it was close. Sutton’s stable now. The baby’s in the NICU. He came early. Not even thirty weeks. They both made it through the night but we’re not in the clear yet.”
“Oh my God,” Bella’s voice now clear in the background. “The baby must be so small!”
“You can come to the hospital,” Luca murmured, though he was anything but calm. “We’re at Lenox Hill. I’ll meet you at the front door.”
“On our way,” Antonio said. “The GPS on my phone says forty–four minutes. We have Bella’s case now, but we would have left it had it not turned up.”
Luca ended the call, staring down at the phone like it had caught fire.
Roman looked over. “Your father is here?”
Luca nodded numbly. “They’re on their way here. Surprise visit.”
“You okay?”
“No,” Luca answered honestly. “No, I’m not.”
It was forty–five minutes later when Luca stepped into the lobby and spotted the three of them moving through the revolving door, which meant he’d timed it just right.
Nick De Santis walked slower than the others, so they adjusted the walk to him. His grip on the handle of his cane was firm. His tailored suit jacket was a size too big now. The doctors had told him to lose weight after his surgery. But he still held the air of a noble Italian with a long family tree that made him proud. Seeing Antonio beside Bella, Luca briefly wondered if his brother had figured out love better than he had.
Luca started across the tiled floor and met them halfway.
Nick sized him up, one brow slightly arched. “You don’t look well.”
“Are you really surprised?” Luca replied.
Nick didn’t say any more before pulling Luca forward and resting a hand on his chest.
“This… is the hardest part of loving a child,” his father said quietly. Nick didn’t say anything about Luca loving Sutton—maybe because, during their last conversation, Luca had claimed he was marrying her for the child, not for love. How wrong he had been. He just hoped Sutton saw it that way if she
found out.
Luca didn’t have it in him to speak.
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Chapter 136
They headed toward the elevators, all of them silent… until Nick suddenly slowed. Luca turned to see why his father was slowing down.
Nick rubbed his sternum once, and a look of pain crossed his aging face. Then he pressed his hand into his chest harder. He stopped walking
“Dad?” Antonio asked.
But Nick didn’t answer as he brought his other hand up to his chest. The cane he had been holding was forgotten as it clattered to the floor. The gasp he let out was sharp before he buckled.
Luca was there in two strides; Antonio moved as well. Bella screamed.
“Dad, hey! Come on, come on!” Luca felt his own heart stop knowing what this was.
Luca and Antonio caught him under the arms before he could hit the hard floor, lowering him carefully into the lobby near the benches.
“Get a gurney–now!” Luca shouted to whoever would listen. His voice cut across space, loud and clear.”
“What happened?” Someone asked.
Luca didn’t answer; instead, he yelled out. “We need help now.” He was not going to spend time answering stupid questions from non–medical staff.
Bella was kneeling now, one hand against Nick’s gray cheek. “Papa.” Since her marriage to Antonio, she had shown their father respect by claiming him
as her own.
Voices buzzed around them, but Luca paid them no attention. Where the fuck was help? This was a hospital, after all.
A nurse appeared with an emergency crash cart and portable oxygen. A doctor soon followed. Someone else had called the cardiology team already on duty.
“Vitals are weak,” the ER doctor barked. “What’s his previous history?”
Luca answered without thinking. “Heart attack about 14 weeks ago. Triple bypass.”
“He’s been compliant with his medications but…” Antonio added, his voice dying off as they wasted no time loading Nick onto a stretcher.
“He could be in cardiogenic shock,” the doctor muttered. “Possible unstable angina escalating into full cardiac failure. We’re moving him to Cath Lab. Page Dr. Beckenridge.”
Luca stood there.
Sutton was still under sedation. Their baby was in the NICU.
Now, his father was on a hospital stretcher headed for another possible open–heart surgery.
“What the hell is happening?” he whispered, not realizing the words weren’t just in his head.
Antonio put a hand on his back but said nothing.
What could you say when your entire world was cracked wide open?
Hours blurred. Luca didn’t move from the surgical floor waiting room.
He’d seen Sutton once. Not for long. She was drugged and still mostly out of it. He’d held her hand. Told her about the baby. She had looked at him with blurred sight before slipping away into sleep again.
His son, their son, was stable. So very small and fragile. Still not breathing on his own yet. The doctor had told him this was normal; his lungs were still developing, and the ventilator would support him for now.
Nick was in surgery, his chest opened up again as they cleared a new blockage they’d missed on the first round.
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Chapter 136
Three people.
Three lifelines, all teetering at once.
Luca had always been good under pressure. But this felt different. This wasn’t a hostile acquisition or market crash. This was his family, his people, He could not lose anyone.
There would be no more wasting time because this proved to him more than anything that time is precious.
And Luca realized that if Sutton came out of this
not hatin
him, then he’d marry her the first chance he got.
A
